The big news from Kiev yesterday was the murder of Russian journalist and Chechen War veteran Arkady Babchenko, who in 2017 had left Russia and gone to live in Ukraine. According to reports, his wife found him bleeding on the street outside their home. He had been shot several times in the back, and died a short while later. Once the news became public, Ukrainian officials lined up to blame the Russian government for the murder. Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, for instance, referred to Babchenko’s last post on Facebook, saying:
This is the last post of Arkady Babchenko. Ten hours ago he wrote about his second birthday. And then they killed him. I am confident that the Russian totalitarian machine did not forgive him his honesty and principled stance. He was a true friend of Ukraine who told the world the truth about Russian aggression.
Except, it turns out that Babchenko isn’t dead after all. As the Kyiv Post reports:
Arkady Babchenko, a Russian journalist who was reportedly killed in Kyiv on May 29 and widely mourned, stood up alive at the office of Ukraine’s State Security Service on May 30, claiming his death was faked in a special operation to capture the actual killer.
Babchenko thanked the security services of Ukraine [SBU] and asked his friends and his wife, who was also unaware of the operation, to forgive him for the suffering they had to endure thinking that he had been dead.
…
According to the SBU, the Russian special services ordered the murder of Babchenko and paid an unnamed Ukrainian citizen, $40,000 to organize the murder. He searched for a killer to perform the murder among the Ukrainian veterans of the war in Donbas. According to the SBU, he eventually hired a man, paying him $30,000 for the murder, but the SBU learned about the operation, recruited the hired “killer” as a double agent and stage the murder in order to arrest the organizer.
The Ukrainian organizer was detained following the staged murder. According to the SBU, he was going to organize killings of 30 Russian citizens in Ukraine on Russian special services’ order, with Babchenko being the first one.
My first thought on this is: what sort of guy allows his wife to find him apparently bleeding to death outside his home and then allows her to believe that he has died from his wounds? I find this quite staggering. My second thought is: why should we believe anything the Ukrainian authorities say about this matter? After all, they’ve just admitted lying about Babchenko’s murder. They even went so far as to release false information about the murder weapon, issuing a report that three bullet casings from a Makarov pistol had been found near the scene. At this point, they can hardly be considered a reliable source of news.
The plots being uncovered by the SBU keep getting odder and odder. Just before the Babchenko case, for instance, we had the arrest of Rada Deputy Nadia Savchenko for an alleged conspiracy to blow up the Ukrainian parliament and then charge into whatever would be left of the building with machineguns to mow down any survivors. Frankly, I am having problems knowing what to make of all this. It is beyond bizarre.
Perhaps Ukraine really is a hotbed of coup plots and murderous Russian conspiracies. Alternatively, the Ukrainian state has lost all semblance of normality and is resorting to the strangest methods in order to maintain an atmosphere of fear and external threat. I’m not in a position to say which is true, but I strongly suspect that many Russians will draw the latter conclusion and see the Babchenko case as further proof that the Ukrainian state has become entirely deranged. Even if the Ukrainian claims are true, this isn’t a normal way of doing business, and Kiev’s credibility will be damaged as a result.
IRRUSSIANALITY 
In the UK we have 3 people.; the Skripals and a policeman “attacked by a military grade nerve agent” that kills in seconds – they all lived.
Now in Ukraine we have the “assassination” of a journalist – which turns out to have been faked stunt.
Both incidents generated a lot of criticism of Russia, with President Putin personally blamed
No one has died – but the amount of media attention generated surpassed the killing of 60 Palestinians and the wounding of thousands.
This is when you know this is all propaganda and not real news.
LikeLiked by 5 people
“In the UK we have 3 people.; the Skripals and a policeman “attacked by a military grade nerve agent” that kills in seconds – they all lived.
Now in Ukraine we have the “assassination” of a journalist – which turns out to have been faked stunt. “
It took Skripal’s 2 months to “ressurect” from the 100% deadly poison.
It took Babchenko less than 24 hours to ressurect from “3 bullets in the back.”
Conclusions? THe Ukrainian healthcare under Ulyana Suprun is 20 times more effective than the UK’s! SUGS!!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good one!!
LikeLike
“Alternatively, the Ukrainian state has lost all semblance of normality and is resorting to the strangest methods in order to maintain an atmosphere of fear and external threat.”
That’s old news, though. Remember how, 3+ years ago, their official parliamentary delegation gave fake photos of Russian tanks invading Ukraine to American senator, who then rushed to present them on the congress floor? Although this one is certainly more imaginative…
LikeLiked by 5 people
Sadly mainstream western, particularly UK media, don’t seem to see how bizarre this gormless stunt looks. It does not conform to the narrative therefore it is all a clever ploy to fool the big bad bear.
The Ukrainian political system has been utterly dysfunctional which widespread poverty in what should be a reasonably wealthy country. The GDP per head, population, standard of living (e.g. car ownership). health indicators, etc. have declined heavily since independence in 1991 to a greater extent than Belarus or Russia and unlike the other Slavic former Soviet states have not seen any recovery. This is of course not mentioned in mainstream western commentary
Unfortunately for Ukraine the politicians are crooks , nationalist fantasists. thugs or all of the above. Things will not get better until there is a leadership which promotes an inclusive vision focused on national reconciliation, which also has a basic degree of honesty and competence – regrettably I just cannot see this happening
LikeLiked by 4 people
“Things will not get better until there is a leadership which promotes an inclusive vision focused on national reconciliation, which also has a basic degree of honesty and competence “
Please, enLYTTEN us all – how do you see such “national reconciliation, which also has a basic degree of honesty and competence” (c) between those who thinks that Bandera and Shukhevich were heroes and the normal people?
LikeLike
The fact that one side of the country feels that Bandera is a hero and the other sees him as a murdering criminal shows that reconciliation is pretty unlikely to impossible. The nationalists have a national vision based on exclusion which is not really compatible with peaceful coexistence. Until this changes I cannot see long term peace.
Regarding basic competence Ukraine has a serious problem functioning, I would be more frightened if a competent nationalist took power and organised a more serious and effective democide against people who do not share the victim vision. The west would stand on the sidelines and applaud as some ethnic groups are seen as more worthy than others. I am not sure if Russia would be willing to properly intervene to protect its kin, rather than the covert and mid scale methods used so far
LikeLiked by 1 person
“The fact that one side of the country feels that Bandera is a hero and the other sees him as a murdering criminal shows that reconciliation is pretty unlikely to impossible. The nationalists have a national vision based on exclusion which is not really compatible with peaceful coexistence. Until this changes I cannot see long term peace. “
Yes, but what IS the Ukrainian nationalism? Could it be limited narrowly to SS-Galitchina and OUN-UPA? Finally, what IS the Ukrainian nation?
I think, no one knows the answer on the last question – i.e. what makes up the proper, справжнiй Ukrainian. That’s not a question about “nationalism”. It’s a question about the Ukraine as nation – should it exist as an independe nation state in the first place and why?
Also, if you admit that “one side of the country feels that Bandera is a hero and the other sees him as a murdering criminal” (c) how can you suggest a “national reconciliation, which also has a basic degree of honesty and competence”? You just admitted yourself that it’s pretty much impossible. Why suggesting it then?
LikeLike
Idiots in Ukraine made idiotic provocation and very proud of themselves! They made everyone, who sincerely mourned the loss, including members of UN Security Council, to feel insulted to the marrow of theirs bones. Kiev’s anti-people and ultranationalist regime posed is a threat to neighboring countries and peace.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ukrainian government looks like a bunch of liars and fools. This really was a crude provocation.
If they really were looking to capture an assassin there are better ways to do it than this
Western Journalists and politicians (Boris Johnson ) look like fools for there haste in believing this stunt. Had any of them heard of this guy?
They will go quiet and wait to jump on the next anti Russian provocation.
The western media and governments have not cared when other journalists Oles Burzina for example have been killed. It’s all crocodile tears
Two weeks to the World Cup what will the West think of next.
LikeLiked by 2 people
“Kiev’s credibility will be damaged as a result.”
Kiev’s credibility? Kiev’s credibility?
Where would one look for that? Back in time? When?
LikeLike
882
LikeLike
882? 😉 Well, that explains it – they suffered from the deadly FAKE NEWS so early in their history, that decided from now on to resort to lying all the time!
From the Primary Chronicle:
“In the year 6390 (882) Oleg set forth, taking with him many warriors from among the Varangians, the Chuds, the Slavs, the Merians and all the (23) Krivichians. He thus arrived with his Krivichians before Smolensk, captured the city, and set up a garrison there. Thence he went on and captured Lyubech, where he also set up a garrison. He then came to the hills of Kiev, and saw how Askold and Dir reigned there. He hid his warriors in the boats, left some others behind, and went forward himself bearing the child Igor’. He thus came to the foot of the Hungarian hill and after concealing his troops, he sent messengers to Askold and Dir, representing himself as a stranger on his way to Greece on an errand for Oleg and for Igor’, the prince’s son, and requesting that they should come forth to greet them as members of their race. Askold and Dir straightway came forth. Then all the soldiery jumped out of the boats, and Oleg said to Askold and Dir, “You are not princes nor even of princely stock, but I am of princely birth.” Igor’ was then brought forward, and Oleg announced that he was the son of Rurik. They killed Askold and Dir, and after carrying them to the hill, they buried them there…”
See? Here we have desinformatsiya, maskirovka, provokatsiya 1200 years ago! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
What credibility? darn Castello beat me to it.
LikeLike
Here’s an alternative way to write this post…
LikeLike
“My first thought on this is: what sort of guy allows his wife to find him apparently bleeding to death outside his home and then allows her to believe that he has died from his wounds?”
This guy:
All in all, yesterday was the rendition of Cardinal Richelieu’s “Day of the Fools”, which, truly to the truism to a “t”, repeated itself as a farce. “Ekho Moskvy” ran nearly a dozen of militant obituaries condemning “Bloody Regime”. SUDDENLY everyone was remembering only nice things about “The Good Soldier Babetta”. SUDDENLY everyone forgot, that he is a jobless hobo living on Yandex-money donates; a veritable modern-day panhandler with the only difference being that the begat that asks you for a change on the streets or metro will get drunk on cheap vodka, while Arkady Beh-Beh-Beh got drunk on wines (and then posted on FB about it).
Meanwhile Гussian intelligentsia already planned memorial rallies, featuring such political heavyweights as Dima Gudkov (Jr) and Ksenia Sobchak. It was a veritable KGB provocation, that the news of Babchenko’s resurrection arrived in the heat of the organized militant mourning and cut their condemnation and political Dance Macabre mid sentence.
[Also, I strongly suspect, that “Russian” diaspora of dissidents in Kiev was very busy yesterday, planning how to sell Babchenko’s imaginary “Abrams” MBT, unto which he promised to ride into “liberated Moscow”]
P.S.
Internationalist Russian journalism was on the top level!
LikeLike
I really enjoy your description of these Russian intelligencia/ liberals being cut off “mid sentence”.
The western media too was cut off – but still try to find a way to blame the Russian state for Ukraine’s brainless behaviour.
LikeLike
“The western media too was cut off – but still try to find a way to blame the Russian state for Ukraine’s brainless behaviour.”
The New York Times and M. Gessen of New Yorker did just that – tried to salvage peremoga from the jaws of the info-war zrada. Their efforts remind me of the old rather rude anecdote:
– Sir, wake up sir! You just shat your pants!
– I wasn’t sleeping!
LikeLiked by 1 person
And the “Putin kills journalists/dissidents” meme lives on. The problem? It’s statistically 100% nonsense to begin with. The “meme” pisses me off every single time, because the accusations are particularly nasty. Could someone please tell that to the Western MSM? That it’s an obvious lie that has purely been repeated over and over again? Indeed, talk about selective reporting. Nothing but propaganda at this point, only the narrative matters… utterly deranged. There’s no way things were this bad during the previous cold war and that is just… crazy, and sad.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I suspect it is as simple as the Ukrops taking any opportunity to poke a stick at the bear without thinking of the consequences.
Now Babchenko is a marked man and is possibly more useful dead than alive. He could be assassinated by his patrons for real. The story has already set up Russia as the culprit so what have the Ukrops to lose? There is prior art with Nemtsov. Trails relating to the his murder led back to the Ukraine but it was pinned on Russia.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Unfortunately as some here predicted the Western establishment media has come out in support of Ukraine’s lies.
Articles appeared:
Anne Applebaum – wash post
Gary Kasparov- wash post
Peter Pomanransev – Guardian
Keith and Masha Gessen
I could go on – this is Russophobia on display
As for the public?
Like the Skripals this Babchenko is someone they are supposed to be outraged about – because “Putin did it”
And remember in all cases – no one died ( aside from the unfortunate pets starved then burned!!)
Yet no concern is shown about the war crime of the killing of the Palestinian nurse. An actual war crime, a nurse is dead killed – and nothing …
LikeLiked by 1 person